Menu

Archbishop Iakovos

I am using the days of the Feast of the Nativity to reclaim and restore some things in my life that I have let slide for way too long. My gross little tank half filled with tannin stained water is a 35 gallon tank with schools of golden barbs and neon tetras. I have my medical and other bills together and will set things up to slowly pay them off. Tomorrow is going to be in the upper 50’s. So I will get to my car cleaned up. But today was a combination of the kitchen, some laundry, and my all important cell.

The Modern Monastic with my patron saints John the Baptist and Cyprian of Carthage and a photo with my wife.

Monks live cells as a place of prayer and solitude. As my wife’s condition went south, I moved to the spare bedroom. She had used it to store some of her notebooks and other things. I used it as well as a bit of a dumping ground. And I have never been a neat freak in the slightest. With me clearing out my office at the church and my wife and her aide slowly tackling getting the home office/junk room straight, I figured making my bedroom into a proper monastic cell would be a better option.

St. Moses the Ethiopian told a brother monk, “Go to thy cell and thy cell will teach thee everything.” In the state it was in, the only thing my cell could teach me is that I am a mental and spiritual bus accident waiting to happen. Seeing that I have been in three of them and there was damage in each, I figured I’d do something about it. Finishing the job, I found 3 bags of clothes that are heading for a donation bin. I haven’t decided what to do about my shortwave radio and scanner. And if my shotgun was in the house, I would have shot the old DirecTV box for fun.

But, a couple of items in my cell have prominence. I have an Oxford Study Bible with the Apocrypha that I have owned for about 20+ years. I also have the New Jerusalem Bible my father gave me when I graduated from VSU in 1989. Both of those Bibles have been with me in quiet contemplation and major wrestling matches. The photo of my wife and I taken when we got back together in 2000 (we did separate for two years for the sake of mutual mental health). Despite our inner demons and outer differences, we love and are very loyal to each other. A copy of the Life Magazine photo of Archbishop Iakovos with Martin Luther King Jr during the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965. Perhaps a foretaste of Orthodox Christianity and African-Americans coming together for dialogue and working together for the betterment of humanity.

Along with my prayers before my Matins in the living room, I am reading the Ante Nicene Fathers and taking notes. I need to remind myself to push myself to pray Compline. And also to spend time enjoying leisurely reading while listening to some good jazz every now and then.

The confluence of the days is no coincidence. Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday will be celebrated on January 21st. This is also the same date of the Second Inauguration of President Barak Obama. Every American, in particular African-Americans, understand the importance and prophetic like significance of these events. King was the voice for a better America and helped lead the country out of the satanic state of segregation. Obama is a symbol of what anyone can achieve if they strive to do their best. There is no way I could nor would want to dispel these two great men. But, I do believe it is important for we as Protestant Christians, and especially African-American Christians to also regard Saint Anthony of Egypt. Today is his feast day.

St. Anthony the Great

St. Anthony the Great inherited great wealth from his parents and could have lived a life of great splendor. Yet hearing the Gospel message, he left his worldly possessions behind and took up a life of prayer in the desert. His devotion to prayer was a great influence on Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria who gave the church its first creed and was the first to compile the list of books that became our New Testament. Another Egyptian, Macarius, to write prayers that are still prayed by Orthodox believers around the world. Anthony’s defence of Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God during the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea helped the early church reject the heresy of Arianism. Yet, rather than bask in the glories of his achievements, Anthony kept returning to his cave. His followers followed his instructions and buried him in a secret grave so that he would not become the object of veneration.

The importance of Anthony is no less than that of MLK and Mr. Obama. As we celebrate these to great men, now is the time for us to open our hearts and minds to learn about and celebrate our African-Christian heroes (and the saints of other lands as well). Had there been no Anthony, the correct doctrines supported by Athanasius, Basil, Nicholas (yes, THAT St. Nicholas), and others may not have been as convincing to Emperor Constantine and the Council. The rich prayer tradition of Orthodox and Catholic monks and nuns would not have developed in such meaningful ways. Indeed, where would King have received his Holy Bible from? What sort of Bible would Mr. Obama take the oath of office on? The “Desert Fathers” of Africa should and must be a part of who we African-American Christians honor during Black History Month as without them, we (and the world) might not be here and not have a true idea of who Jesus Christ is.

Archbishop Iakovos with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

During the era of Dr. King, we were too busy with fighting for our Civil Rights to learn much about our Christian history. Now, it is possible that an African-American President who struggled during his first term could win a second. Nothing is stopping us from reading the books of the early church fathers and talking to Eastern and Oriental Orthodox clergy. Instead of choking our people on a diet of a modern Christian market, we can introduce them to the solid doctrines, prayers, and practices of our African ancestors. Even if we choose not to convert to Orthodoxy (and I think some of us should), we should know our history. We have no excuses not to learn.

Forgive me for not coming up with a better title for this. But, I have an interest in both of these expressions of faith. I am a product of the old slave religion that grew into the preaching power of Gardner Taylor and the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. Yet, I can’t escape the fact that there is an unbroken line of the Apostle’s faith and teaching that still exist today. Is there a dialogue between these two paths? Surely there are differences as well as some similarities. What does my church have to teach the ancient ones? What can their fathers teach this son? This is a topic I will work with for a few years, if not a lifetime.

I ran across this article earlier this morning concerning the Greek Archbishop Iakovos and why he earlier opposed public Civil Rights demonstrations. In no way did he support the bigotry and segregation in America (not just the South). But, he was opposed to the empty participation in marches without people making a true change of heart and mind.

“Too often the demonstrators go home and say, ‘I did my part,’ but refuse to carry through. How many of them are willing to live with Negroes as neighbors, or give them a job or train them for a skill? In those areas lie the long-range benefits.”

I found the archbishop’s point not much different from that of Malcolm X as he also noted that people would march for the sake of grand performance rather than having the guts to search within themselves to make equality and justice a reality. Both Iakovos and Malcolm would be in Selma, Alabama to give their support to the demonstration there. Perhaps both men realized what was written in Ecclesiastes 3:1, There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven. The 1960’s were the time to march. Iakovos did. Malcolm perhaps would have been in a later march had his life not been cut short.

But, it is still time for us to have true racial harmony in this nation. This is where Archbishop Iakovos’s words underscore the real problem with public demonstrations. King made some similar observations in his works as well. Participating in a public demonstration is too easily used as a cover for one not changing their hearts and minds. Take the horrible events in Sanford, Florida for example. How many people who are expressing sympathy for the cause and yet look on black youth with suspicion? Indeed, how many blacks look at black youth with suspicion?

Black Protestantism and Orthodoxy have this point of agreement. True change cannot be made by mass demonstrations, no matter how righteous the cause. Such protest may be useful for a time. But, unless people are willing to live as spiritual creatures that truly accept the value of one another, racism will be with us even when the “Whites Only” signs are taken down.